Re: Can auto_ptr<> be used with void and malloc()/free()

From:
Ulrich Eckhardt <eckhardt@satorlaser.com>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.vc.language
Date:
Wed, 05 May 2010 09:09:14 +0200
Message-ID:
<q5i7b7-gg.ln1@satorlaser.homedns.org>
Ulrich Eckhardt wrote:

bob wrote:

I need to allocate a variable size struct using malloc() and then free it
using free(). Is there a way I could wrap a pointer returned from
malloc() in auto_ptr<>?


No, auto_ptr uses delete, which you must not use with a pointer returned
from malloc. What I'm not sure about is whether you could override
operators new/delete for your struct and redirect these accordingly to do
The Right Thing(tm). I'd try asking this in comp.lang.c++.moderated.


Without claiming that this is portable, it seems to do the right thing under
GCC 4:

struct var
{
    size_t len;
    unsigned char content[0];
#ifdef __cplusplus
    static auto_ptr<var> create(size_t len)
    {
        void* ptr = malloc(sizeof (var) + len);
        printf("create() = %p\n", ptr);
        if(!ptr)
            throw std::bad_alloc();
        auto_ptr<var> res(static_cast<var*>(ptr));
        res->len = len;
        return res;
    }
    auto_ptr<var> clone() const
    {
        auto_ptr<var> res = create(len);
        memcpy(res.get(), this, sizeof (var) + len);
        return res;
    }
    void operator delete(void* ptr)
    {
        printf("delete(%p)\n", ptr);
        free(ptr);
    }
private:
    // private constructor, use create()
    var(){}
    // not copyable, use clone()
    var(var const&);
    // not assignable
    var& operator=(var const&);
#endif
};

Cheers!

Uli

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